Mondelēz International recently announced the next chapter of Harmony, its pioneering, third-party verified European wheat sustainability program.
With regenerative agriculture at its heart, the next chapter of the programme aims to mitigate climate change and reverse biodiversity losses, support all farmers in transitioning to regenerative practices, and invest in research looking to demonstrate that more sustainable wheat is also better-quality wheat.
The Harmony program is also helping the company to deliver on its Snacking Made Right mission, at the heart of which is offering snacks the right way for both people and planet, along with contributing to its global goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its whole value chain by 2050.
Created in 2008 with just a handful of farmers, the program now collaborates with 1360 farmers across seven European countries.
The newly announced Harmony Ambition 2030 will accelerate this progress by making a last impact on three focus areas which include environment, farmers and consumers. For farmers, the program will help farmers to strengthen their practices in a way that has reduced environmental impact; they will also be provided with a digital package and on the ground training; and Mondelēz’s research team will look to demonstrate that sustainable wheat is better wheat.
As one of Europe’s largest biscuits maker, Mondelēz’s ambition is to play a key role in helping to tackle the biggest environmental challenges in wheat farming through a robust approach to regenerative agriculture.
“Harmony Ambition 2030 is a key part of our sustainability strategy. We are working with local farmers and partners across Europe to help create a world where the wheat for our well-loved biscuits is grown in thriving and biodiverse environments,” added Peter Seymour, Senior Vice President Marketing & Strategy, Europe. “All this is part of our long-term business growth ambition and mission to offer consumers the right snack, for the right moment, made the right way.”
The Harmony program has developed a strong and unique data reporting system on farming practices, ensuring full traceability from wheat storage to plant. External Harmony audits are conducted among Harmony partners every year by independent and certified organisations such as SGS and Bureau Veritas, to guarantee compliance with the Harmony Charter.
“We kickstarted Harmony Ambition 2030 last year with a Test and Learn model in France, with partner farmers having sown Harmony wheat under our new Regenerative Charter for harvest in 2023,” said Marie Ellul-Karamanian, Harmony Program Lead. “We are excited to take the learnings from this pilot and apply them to a wider European roll-out over the next few years.”
Mondelēz International’s goal is to grow 100% of the wheat volume needed for its European biscuits production under the expanded Harmony Regenerative Charter by 2030.
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